Ben said all of that at a normal volume and Teren sighed that our private conversation was no longer private. Sticking her hands on her hips, Tracey asked, "What the hell are you guys talking about?"
Giving her just a second's glance, I turned my attention over to Ben. "Gabriel is handling it, Ben. I don't want the two of you involved." My heart would have been hammering if it still could. Just the thought of Teren picking up another stake made me feel ill, worse than the fumes of popcorn all around me. I didn't think I could handle that stress again. I squeezed his arms in my hands painfully tight. "I can't deal with you knocking on stranger's doors again. I can't. I won't."
Teren flinched under my grasp and moved to unclench me, right as Ben started in on his opinion. While he spouted that our families' safety came first, Tracey finally got sick of being left in the dark. She snatched the note right out of Hot Ben's hands.
We all three moved to snatch it back, but Tracey swirled around at the same time. So ingrained to never use our abilities in public, I couldn't grab it back quick enough. She stared at it, her blonde hair shaking back and forth as she tried to understand what it meant. Twisting back to us, her face was comically twisted in confusion. "Is this a joke?"
Hot Ben put a hand soothingly on her arms while Teren and I each took a step towards her. Her ice blue eyes darted between the three of us, like she suddenly didn't know any of us. My dead heart dropped at the confusion in her features. "What the hell is going on? Who is Malcolm? Who is Gabriel?"
Ben cupped her ghostly white cheek before running his hand back through her hair. "I can explain, babe."
I couldn't help but wonder what the heck he was going to say to explain all of this. Tracey seemed to wonder that too. She batted his hand away. "Bloodshed? You can explain bloodshed?"
Her voice rose and warbled as color filled her cheeks. Seeing a couple of people walking past staring, Teren grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty theater. She struggled with him while Ben and I followed, but no human gets out of Teren's grasp unless he wants them to. Shutting the propped open door behind myself, I sighed wearily.
"Let me go, Teren. You let me go or I'll, I'll...I'll scream." She inhaled to create the sound and Teren slapped his hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened and she struggled more.
Teren held her close to his body while Ben and I each put a comforting hand on her shoulders. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I don't want you to scream right now."
She struggled more, inhaling and exhaling frantically as Teren held her in place against his chest. Hating this, I tried to turn her head toward me. She finally peeked at me out of the corner of her eye. "We're not going to hurt you, Trace, calm down."
She shook her head at me and clamped down around Teren's fingers with her teeth. I could see Teren flinch as she pierced his skin, but he didn't let her go. Ben, trying to rub her back around Teren's arms, sighed. "Trace, don't...just relax."
Her eyes narrowed to fiery points at him. Letting out a frustrated grunt, Teren dropped down to look her in the eye. "If I let go, do you promise not to scream?"
She looked at the three of us, then nodded, reluctantly. Teren tentatively let go, his hand ready to slap back into place if she made the wrong move. As he gently released her, her breathing steadied. Her eyes locked on Teren, glancing down to his blood smeared fingers once. She couldn't tell, but I could clearly see that he was already healed from her chomp.
Glaring at all of us, she held up the note up again. "What the hell are you three involved in?"
I sighed wearily, not sure what to tell her. "It's...just a joke. You were right...April Fools," I tried weakly.
Her eyes narrowed at me. "It's May, Emma." Her gaze flicked between the boys. "Who's a threat to you? This Malcolm guy? Why, what did you do to him?"
Teren sighed, grabbing the note from her hand. "Nothing, Tracey, this means nothing."
Ben looked away, gritting his jaw like he disagreed but wouldn't openly contradict Teren's lie. Tracey didn't notice her fiance's face though. Her eyes were darting from Teren's fingers to the ink on the paper. Her own fingers flew to her mouth. "Oh my god, is that written in blood? Like, actual blood?"
Teren closed his eyes, then effortlessly smiled. "Of course not, Tracey. Why would we have a note written in blood?"
Tracey pointed a finger at him. "Exactly! Why?" Her brow furrowed as she tilted her head, her blonde curls spilling over her shoulder. "Is this some 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' thing? Did you guys kill someone, and this Gabriel guy knows and is hunting you down?"
I inadvertently giggled; I did that at odd moments sometimes. Biting my lip, I managed to say, "You watch too many movies, Trace."
She put her hands on her h*ps while Ben tried to approach her again. Backing off at her warning glance, she bit out, "No, something is off with you three. You're all hiding something." She pointed at Ben. "You are always so secretive about stuff." Her finger came to me. "And you never let me just pop over to visit."
Her finger finished its circle to Teren. "And you...you are...I don't know, you seem perfect." Teren blinked and Tracey raised her chin. "Too perfect." She gasped and took a step back. "You're the murderer, aren't you? You wrote this! You're Malcolm! It's always the nice, seemingly normal guy that ends up being the serial killer that stores body parts in the freezer! You did it, didn't you? You killed someone!"
Ben and I rolled our eyes at the exact same time but Teren flinched and looked down. He didn't mean to, but I saw the moment of guilt cross his face. While not what Tracey was accusing him of, he had killed someone before, viciously, and a small portion of him still carried around the guilt over doing it, self defense and self preservation or not.
As Teren didn't contradict her, she brought her hands to her mouth, stared at all of us in horror, and turned and ran. Watching her dash for the emergency exit, I knew I had plenty of time to catch her. Teren grabbed my arm though. "Let her go," he said to me and Ben, who was starting to run after her at his own speed. We both halted as she slammed open the door.
Placing my hand on his, I shook my head. "Teren, we can't just let her think you're a murderer." Even just saying the words, a small giggle came out of me. I just couldn't help it. Teren some psychopathic killer? Yeah, maybe to the bovine world. Although, Tracey was sort of right in one way...he did have blood in his freezer.
Sighing, he reached in his jacket and grabbed his cell phone. "Don't worry, she won't." Flicking it open I heard him press a speed dial button. Immediately upon connection, he sullenly muttered, "Hey, Mom, it's me. I need to talk to Great-Gran."
Luckily for us, Tracey didn't have the keys to Ben's SUV, and it was still parked in the same spot when the three of us finally made our way out of the empty theater. Ben looked around for Tracey while Teren and I smelled the air for her perfume. It was a heavy fragrance, to my sensitive nose at least, and lingered in the currents. I shifted to look down the main road that led out of the area, back towards Ben and Tracey's place.
Teren's healed finger lifted to point in the direction I was already looking. "She went that way, Ben."
Hot Ben sighed, following our direction. "She only had a couple bucks, she's probably walking home." Looking back at us, he exhaled heavily. "I'll go pick her up, take her home." Twisting his lips, he shook his head. "Meet us back there with Halina."
Teren nodded, grabbing my hand. In my head I could already feel the eldest vampire coming towards us. Once we got back to Teren's car, we gave Ben a few minutes to calm down Tracey enough to collect her, then started making our way to his place. Teren drove slowly, clutching the wheel. I bit my lip. Feeling us moving, Halina shifted her direction to follow.
I sighed that someone I knew was about to get erased, but there was really no way around it. We couldn't explain the note to any real satisfaction, and unlike with Ben, Tracey hadn't discovered the truth. No, she was convinced that Teren was a multiple murderer. Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes at her. I wanted to laugh again at the situation, but the note tucked away in Teren's pocket wasn't at all funny. It sort of put a damper on Tracey's fanciful imagination.
Pulling into the drive, Halina moments behind us, I twisted to Teren before he cracked open his door. Taking in the faint glow of his eyes as he watched me, I inhaled a deep breath. "Promise me that you and Ben won't go searching for this guy."
Teren looked away from me, his jaw clenching. "Ben's right, Em. He knows who I am."
Placing my hand on his arm, I shook my head. "Let Gabriel clean up his own mess, it doesn't involve us." He looked back at me and I saw the glint in his eye. I knew that Teren felt a little invested, since the vampire had prematurely ended him. Touching his cheek, I amended with, "It doesn't involve us anymore. You did your part already. You let Gabriel know what was going on. Give Malcolm's message to Halina, and then let's be done with this."
Teren sighed, then nodded. "Okay."
I raised my eyebrows. "Promise." Smiling softly, he shook his head. "I promise, Emma. I won't go looking for this guy."
Exhaling softly, I rested my head against his. "Thank you," I whispered, kissing him.
As we lightly kissed in the car, the window was rapped on. Teren and I broke apart, looking out the driver's side to see Halina standing with her hands on her hips, watching us. Having felt her approach, I wasn't startled by seeing her there and only smiled at her while Teren cracked open his door.
Frowning, Halina's slightly glowing eyes shifted to the home that I could hear panicked voices conversing in. Tilting her dark head, Halina worried her lip. "Do you think this will work?" she asked Teren, her voice and face oddly unconfident.
Slinging an arm around her shoulders, Teren nodded reassuringly. "Whatever...happened with Carrie was a fluke. Your abilities have never let us down before." Squatting, he met and held her eye. "And they won't fail us tonight."
Halina smiled slyly, her general air of "I'm-a-badass" returning. Twisting on her booted heel, she strutted right up to the front door, Teren and I a few steps behind her. From inside, I could hear Tracey screeching on about all the little mysteries she had about Ben. I hated that most, if not all, were directly because of my husband's secret. Hot Ben had been a lock box when it came to Teren, never fully explaining certain things. And never having satisfyingly explained the period of time when he'd been out doing reckless things with him, hunting vampires for instance. Tracey had a lot of questions over it now, feeling like that mysterious time had something to do with the letter.
Halina walked in without knocking, maybe figuring that she was going to wipe her anyway, so why bother with being polite. Teren and I glanced at each other, then followed her. Tracey and Hot Ben were renting a cute little one bedroom house near Golden Gate Park. They wanted something bigger someday, but for now, it worked for them. Bridal magazines and fabric samples were strewn everywhere as she prepared for her big day. Even though they hadn't picked out a date yet, Tracey had already finalized her flower choices and from what Ben had told Teren, she'd even already started getting them wedding cake samples.